Asus Taichi starts to flow in November, pricing gets specific

A tablet and notebook in one

Asus' duel-screen tablet/notebook creations, dubbed the Taichi (like the mellow martial art), is set to come out this November.

Asus dropped the news during a New York City event Tuesday, along with revelations about a plethora of Windows 8 devices.

Along with a release date, Asus also revealed the pricing model for a trio of devices. The base unit will run $1,299 (£815 /AU$1266) for a 128GB solid state drive, $1,499 (£940 /AU$1461) for 256GB and $1,599 (£1,003/AU$1,558) for the same space but with an upgraded processor.

Those drives, by the way, are non-upgradable.

The specs

All the Taichis will feature full 1920 x 1080, 11.6-inch HD screens, on both sides.

Asus has kept the tablets light as well, with each weighing 1.25 kg (about 2.75 pounds) and tapering the profile to 3 millimeters thin.

The two lower priced models each have Intel Core i5-3317U processors. The priciest version gets pumped up with an Intel Core i7-3517U processor.

The three versions also share Intel HD 4000 graphics, 4GB of RAM and two USB 3.0 ports.

Also part of the offerings are a mic and two cameras: a 5MP one with 1080p video recording and a second 720p camera. The battery should last about five hours as well.

With our powers combine...

The Taichi stands out because it's a true blend of a notebook and a tablet. It's not just a tablet with a keyboard port. Users can close it and use it like any other multi-touch screen slate.

They can also open it and use it like a notebook, just with back-to-back screens. The two screens can be used simultaneously for presentations or spaced out movie watching.

The notebook/tablet combo is also well suited to take advantage of Windows 8's touch-friendly operating system.

Release when?

What's more, rumors previously indicated the Taichi would come out this week to coincide with the new operating system's launch, but it looks like we'll have to settle for pricing information.

ASUS didn't give an exact date for the release, though a company representative told TechRadar the Taichi will be available globally in November.